Provision All Hosts and Set Up Host Customizations

<

With the rule in place that provisions hosts using an image profile, and with the host profile created from the reference host available, you can provision all target hosts. If any host profile items are set to prompt the user for input, the host comes up in maintenance mode. You apply the host profile or check host compliance to be prompted for the information. The system associates the host customization with the host.

Open a console to each host you want to provision to monitor boot progress.

Procedure

Boot the remaining hosts.

Auto Deploy boots the hosts, applies the host profile, and adds the hosts to the vCenter Server inventory. The hosts remain in maintenance mode because the host profile from the reference host is set up to require user input for each host.

With a vSphere Web Client, connect to the vCenter Server system.

Click Home and select Host Profiles.

In the panel on the left, select the ESXiGold profile and add the newly booted hosts to that profile.

Apply the host profile to each of the hosts, provide the user input information, and reboot each host.

When the reboot progress completes, all hosts are running with the image you specify and use the configuration in the reference host profile. The cluster shows that all hosts are fully compliant.

Results

All hosts are now configured with the shared information through the reference host profile and with the host-specific information through the host customization mechanism. The next time you boot the hosts, they retrieve that information and boot completely.

What to do next

With your proof of concept implementation completed successfully, you can start planning your production setup.